State board nursing investigations can be concerning, at least, more likely daunting, and frankly frightening to many nurses, even if the nurse continues to practice and doesn’t get fired due to the circumstances triggering the investigation. In the worst case, though, a state nursing board investigation can include an emergency license suspension that immediately terminates the accused nurse’s practice. Don’t face a worst-case scenario. Instead, retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team for the skilled and experienced license defense representation you need. Let us help you respond to the investigation so that you can keep your nursing practice going while we help to clear your name. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for representation by our highly qualified attorneys.
State Nursing Board Disciplinary Authority
State nursing boards have the statutory authority to investigate nurses accused of violating state nursing board standards. State nursing practice acts uniformly authorize state nursing boards not only to license nurses but also to receive disciplinary complaints, assign investigators, and pursue license discipline. See, for example, the Mississippi Nursing Practice Act, authorizing the Mississippi Board of Nursing to suspend, revoke, or otherwise discipline a licensee upon receiving a credible complaint of standards violation, investigating the complaint, and holding a hearing establishing standards violations. Your state nursing practice act will have a similar provision authorizing your state nursing board to act on a complaint against your license, up to imposing license suspension or revocation. Don’t doubt your state nursing board’s authority to discipline your license. Instead, retain us to respond to your investigation, head off formal disciplinary charges, or represent you at the formal hearing for your best disciplinary outcome.
State Nursing Board Investigation Authority
State nursing boards also have investigatory authority, stated or implied, along with their authority to discipline. See, for example, the California Board of Registered Nursing’s disciplinary process, authorized under the California Business & Professions Code. See also the Oklahoma Board of Nursing’s Investigative Division, responsible for conducting nurse licensing investigations. And see the Mississippi Nursing Practice Act already cited above, expressly authorizing the Mississippi Board of Nursing’s investigatory powers. Those powers include issuing subpoenas to compel production of records or testimony, securing patient charts and medical records, obtaining the accused nurse’s employment and academic records, and interviewing witnesses, including the accused nurse and complainant. Again, don’t doubt your state nursing board’s investigatory authority. Instead, let us help you respond effectively to your investigation to head off disciplinary charges if possible.
Emergency State Nursing Board License Suspension
An investigation does not mean an automatic license suspension. Unless otherwise notified, you may continue your nursing practice while under state nursing board investigation. However, state nursing practice acts authorize state nursing boards to issue immediate license suspensions upon initiation of an investigation, when circumstances warrant such emergency patient or public protection. See, for example, the Nevada Nurse Practice Act expressly authorizing the Nevada Board of Nursing to immediately suspend a license when the accused nurse’s continued practice places “at risk of imminent or continued harm,” “the health, safety or welfare of the public or any patient served by the licensee. Nevada is not alone in that provision. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing confirms that state nursing boards generally have equivalent emergency powers to suspend a license when convinced that the accused nurse’s continued practice risks serious patient harm. If your state nursing practice act has a similar provision, you could lose your license immediately upon the start of a disciplinary investigation. Let us help you avoid that risk. Retain us as soon as you learn of an investigation.
Employer Action While Under License Investigation
You’ve just seen that an investigation does not mean automatic license suspension, although you face a risk of an emergency suspension depending on the allegations triggering the investigation. More about that subject below. Even if the state nursing board takes no emergency action to suspend your license and immediately stop your practice during its investigation, your employer may decide to suspend or terminate your employment. Employers have their own interests in prohibiting unqualified or dangerous nursing practice. Employer interests include protecting patients, colleagues, property, and reputation, and avoiding civil liability for negligent retention of an unqualified nurse under investigation. Whether your employer continues your employment while you are under state board investigation may depend on the nature of the allegations, the quality of your nursing practice, your employer’s staffing needs, and your employer’s relationship. Let us help you respond to the investigation to also mollify employer concerns.
Grounds for Emergency Interim License Suspension
You’ve seen above that you face some risk of license suspension and loss of your nursing practice during a license investigation. You’ve also seen that the state nursing board may need substantial or even convincing evidence that your continued practice presents an imminent risk of serious harm to patients or colleagues. State nursing boards need such emergency grounds because, otherwise, you would have a right to due process before the board suspends or revokes your license. You have a constitutionally protected property and liberty interest in your nursing practice. If the board has no emergency grounds that form a compelling state interest, the board must give you fair notice and a formal hearing before imposing discipline that interrupts your nursing employment. So, whether you get to continue your nursing practice during a license investigation depends on how substantial the evidence is that you present an imminent practice risk.
Examples of Emergency Interim License Suspension
Examples of nursing misconduct warranting immediate license suspension may include substantial evidence that you have a substance abuse, addiction, or dependency issue that interferes with your nursing practice so substantially as to place patients at risk of serious harm. Alternatively, your mental impairment by schizophrenia or a similar delusional condition may warrant immediate suspension. An infectious disease or a physical impairment, such as uncontrolled epileptic seizures, would be examples of physical impairment potentially warranting an interim license suspension.
Other examples potentially warranting immediate interim license suspension include a criminal conviction for a violent crime or a crime directly related to nursing practice. Drug diversion, patient abuse, and sexual assault would be examples. Substantial evidence of continuous incompetence causing or threatening patient injury, showing that you lacked basic nursing skills and training, would be another example. Repeatedly dropping or failing to properly restrain patients, administering wrong medications or medication dosages, or failing to use proper infection control and patient hygiene practices could be other examples. If you face any similar allegations, be sure to retain our attorneys to help you respond to the investigation to preserve your license against interim suspension.
Avoiding Interim License Suspension
Our attorneys may have several actions that they can take on your behalf to reduce the likelihood of your license’s immediate interim suspension, even if the allegations against you were like those just stated above, potentially warranting emergency suspension. Our first helpful action when you retain us as soon as you learn of your investigation is to notify the investigator of our appearance on your behalf. When you retain us, you immediately show the investigator and state nursing board that you are taking seriously your duties to comply with all nursing standards. You are also showing that you are taking your investigation seriously. We can then present your exonerating and mitigating evidence to the investigator, whether in initial communications, responses to the investigator’s production requests, or the course of your interview.
We can also discover from the investigator and nursing board the nature of the allegations against you, so that we can work with you to configure remedial measures that you can readily take, convincing the board that you are not a danger to patients when continuing your practice. Those measures may include voluntarily limiting your practice to certain patients, procedures, facilities, or supervision. For instance, you may agree to avoid contact with vulnerable minors or mentally incompetent patients, avoid accessing drugs for administering medications, or whatever other conduct that may relate to the disciplinary allegations. Let us help you avoid an interim license suspension by a swift, sure, and effective response to the investigation.
Responding to Disciplinary Allegations
When you retain us to help you respond to your state nursing board disciplinary investigation, we can also use the investigation to attempt to lawfully head off disciplinary charges. The same evidence that we present to discourage the state nursing board from pursuing interim license suspension may show the board that it has no need for pursuing license discipline. Your implementation of appropriate remedial measures at our recommendation may enable us to advocate and negotiate with disciplinary officials to voluntarily dismiss the allegations.
We may also be able to present exonerating and mitigating evidence. Exonerating evidence could include your testimony, the statements of other witnesses, and documentary evidence showing that you did not commit the alleged wrong. We may be able to prove that the complainant misidentified you or that the complainant misunderstood your lawful actions and intentions. We may alternatively be able to show that the complainant was discriminating or retaliating against you for no good reason. We may even take the opportunity for a forensic nursing consultant’s review, showing that your actions complied with nursing standards. Let us use the investigation stage not only to head off an interim license suspension but also to advocate for the voluntary dismissal of the allegations. That way, you may end up facing minimal risk of losing your nursing job and practice.
Duty to Cooperate with State Board Investigation
Keep in mind your duty to cooperate with a state nursing board investigation. State nursing practice acts generally treat nurse licensure as a privilege rather than a right, despite your substantial interest in your nursing practice. Indeed, state nursing practice acts and nursing boards treat nursing as a self-regulating profession, requiring nurses to participate in policing the profession against incompetent, unsafe, and dishonest practitioners. Your duty to cooperate with your own investigation is a part of that obligation. You have no privilege against self-incrimination, for instance. The state board investigator may construe your refusal to respond to document requests or submit to an interview against your interests as if your records and testimony would implicate you in misconduct.
On the other hand, don’t rush into responses unprepared, making errors and omissions in your investigation responses or interviews. The state nursing board may construe your errors and omissions as deliberate attempts to obstruct the investigation. You may also make inaccurate admissions that the board may hold against you. Instead, rely on our skilled representation to help you review all the documentation, statements, and complaints, so that you refresh your recollection as to exactly what happened. Then, you can give accurate, truthful, and complete answers that all at once assist the investigation, meet your duty to cooperate, avoid obstruction allegations, and may further aid in your defense.
State Board Disciplinary Procedures
Do not be concerned about our ability to invoke your state nursing board’s disciplinary procedures to ensure your fair treatment. Our attorneys have the knowledge, skill, experience, reputation, and relationships to arrange conciliation conferences and settlement conferences, invoke formal hearings, take available appeals, and seek civil court relief as necessary. Other procedures our attorneys commonly invoke include petitions for reconsideration, petitions for rehearing, and motions for license reinstatement. Some state nursing boards also have procedures to withdraw disciplinary actions already imposed and to expunge disciplinary records. Let us invoke the appropriate procedures for your best disciplinary outcome so that you can continue your valuable nursing practice.
Premier Nursing License Defense Available
If you face a state nursing board disciplinary investigation, your best move is to retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team to help you navigate the investigation and head off disciplinary charges. Our highly qualified attorneys have helped hundreds of nurses and other healthcare professionals weather license investigations to successfully defend and defeat disciplinary allegations. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for the skilled representation you need to continue your nursing practice during a license investigation.